Reviewed by EM | Rating: 4.5/5 | 📖 Physical Copy
⚠️ This is a full spoiler review. If you haven’t read The Swallow yet — go read it first. We’ll be here when you’re done. Or check out the spoiler-free review on Plot Twisted
Opening Hook
This is currently my favourite book, and I’ve already read it twice. It’s a ghost story; it’s sad, it’s sweet, and it made me cry a little. Let’s get into it.
The Full Story — Spoilers Included
So it starts with two girls, Rose and Polly, who move into a duplex. Separate families, but they’re right next door to each other with an attached attic space. They both feel kind of invisible, just in different ways.
Rose’s parents work out of town a lot, so she basically gets left at home with their maid. Polly’s family fosters a bunch of kids (like twelve at once) and there’s a new baby, so she doesn’t get much attention either. Rose is also super pale and dresses in dark clothes, and their house looks out over a cemetery. Rose actually suspects she might be a ghost herself, because she can see ghosts.
Rose and Polly become friends, but they’re not really supposed to talk to each other — their parents don’t allow it. So, they secretly meet up in the adjoining attic. They also go to separate schools, so they can’t talk there either. The whole book, they’re trying to figure out if Rose is or isn’t a ghost.
They find a gravestone in the cemetery with Rose’s middle and last name on it, so at first they think it’s hers, but it turns out to be her aunt’s grave. So that puts an end to trying to find proof that it’s not Rose’s gravestone.
While all this is going on, Polly still isn’t getting any attention from her family. And then they both realize something huge… Polly hasn’t had a real conversation with anyone except Rose in a long time. That’s when Rose figures out the truth: Polly is the ghost. Not her.
Rose has to go up to the attic and break the news to Polly. Polly doesn’t believe her at first, and she starts crying, and they’re both crying, because it’s just really hard for both of them. Polly just found out she’s a ghost, and Polly was Rose’s only friend. Polly keeps denying it for a while.
In the end, Polly moves on. It turns out she died from a really severe fever. She had been hospitalized for it earlier in the book, and everyone (including Rose and Polly herself) thought she recovered, but she didn’t. She’s been gone the whole time.
Best Part of This Book
My favourite moment is in the middle, when Polly and Rose take some chocolate cake and just hang out together, being kids. They don’t really get to do that very often since Rose basically lives alone (someone just makes her food), and Polly has to help take care of the new baby and kind of fend for herself. So that scene where they just get to be normal kids and hang out together was really nice.
I also really liked that the book shows both Rose’s and Polly’s perspectives on the same events.
Worst Part of This Book
I can’t think of anything I didn’t like. The one thing that could be a little tough to track is that since the book shows both girls’ points of view, it sometimes repeats the same scene twice. At first that can feel a little confusing, but once you realize what it’s doing (showing the same moment from two different sides) it makes a lot more sense.
The Twist We Didn’t See Coming
Everyone (including the girls) thinks Rose might be the ghost the whole book, because of how she looks and acts. But it’s actually Polly, the girl who seemed totally normal and alive the whole time.
The Ending — Satisfied or Disappointed?
Satisfied, but it’s a sad ending. Finding out Polly died from the fever she thought she recovered from was a real kick in the butt. It was sad, but it felt like the right ending for the story.
Would We Reread It?
Yes, definitely. I’ve already read it twice and I’d read it again. It’s my favourite book right now.
Who Is This For?
If you like ghost stories, you’ll like this book a lot.
One-Line Summary
Two girls who both feel invisible become secret friends, and then find out one of them has been a ghost the whole time.
The Swallow. 📖 | Genre: Middle-Grade Ghost Mystery